CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Receives FDA Approval for Oracea

Commercial Launch to Dermatologists of First
Orally-Administered Treatment for Rosacea Planned for July
2006

NEWTOWN, Pa., May 30, 2006 - CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
today announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
has approved Oracea for the treatment of inflammatory lesions
(papules and pustules) of rosacea
in adult patients. Oracea is the first FDA-approved,
orally-administered, systemically-delivered drug to treat rosacea,
a dermatologic condition that affects an estimated 14 million
adults in the U.S. CollaGenex plans to launch Oracea to the
dermatology community in July 2006.

Klaus Theobald, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of
CollaGenex, said, "Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition
affecting the facial appearance of millions of people. Our New Drug
Application for Oracea included highly significant results from two
pivotal Phase III clinical trials that demonstrated the efficacy
and safety of this anti-inflammatory drug in the treatment of the
inflammatory lesions of rosacea in adult patients. Oracea provides
dermatologists and rosacea-sufferers a safe and effective treatment
with the convenience of once-a-day oral administration."

Colin Stewart, president and chief executive officer, stated,
"Oracea is the first of a series of dermatology products we have in
development, and we are very pleased that our NDA was approved by
the FDA within 10 months of submission. Sufficient quantities of
Oracea capsules have been manufactured for launch and can now be
packaged for distribution to the trade in July. Over the past six
months, we have built a first-rate specialty sales force to launch
Oracea, and all of our representatives were fully trained and in
their territories by the end of April. This is an extremely
exciting time for CollaGenex, and we look forward to providing
dermatologists and their patients with this exciting new therapy to
treat rosacea."

About Rosacea

Rosacea is a dermatologic condition that affects approximately
14 million adults in the U.S. It affects primarily the face and is
characterized by the appearance of inflammatory lesions (papules
and pustules), erythema (skin redness) and telangiectasia (spider
veins). If allowed to progress to a moderate to severe condition,
rosacea can cause itching, pain and thickening of the skin. The
current U.S. market size for rosacea is estimated to be
approximately $500 million.

About Oracea

Oracea is a 40 mg, unique capsule formulation of doxycycline, USP, dosed once-a-day and
containing a combination of immediate and delayed release beads.
The NDA approval was based primarily upon the safety and efficacy
results of two Phase III, double-blinded, placebo-controlled
clinical trials. These studies enrolled a total of 537 patients in
28 centers across the U.S. In the two studies, patients receiving
Oracea experienced a 61% and 46% mean reduction in inflammatory
lesions compared to 29% and 20% mean reduction, respectively, in
patients receiving placebo. The differences were clinically and
statistically highly significant (p less than 0.001 in each study).
Side effects of the drug were similar to placebo.